harsh boot heel, The

I WOULDN'T ADMIT IT in public, for fear of reviving Joel Pett's ego. But just between us editorial writers: Having a staff cartoonist gives me the greatest pleasure of my working day. Each morning I spring from bed and joyfully proclaim, "Another day! Another chance to crush the fragile flower of his creative spirit beneath the harsh boot heel of arbitrary and capricious authority!"

This spirit of warm collegiality, I gather, characterizes most successful relationships between cartoonists and editors.

I constantly remind Pett that his muse is most creative when laboring under a bit of creative tension. He incessantly whines that I have the sensitivity of a nineiron and the sense of humor of Tipper Gore. Out of this jolly employee-supervisor relationship come five editorial cartoons a week, a steady stream of telephone calls and the daily joy of applying the aforementioned boot heel, etc.

Lately, I've been worried that I'm getting soft. Some months ago, for example, I approved a cartoon that lampooned the Pope's visit to the United States. I knew it was a mistake to have published it as soon as the publisher called me into his office to tell me so. And events bore out that judgment.

Readers howled in our letters column. Others wrote in to defend Pett and the cartoon. A Catholic congregation in a neighboring town began to pray for Pett's salvation. At a nearby state university, the cartoon became the subject of a heated discussion in a philosophy class.

Clearly, I made a mistake in allowing that cartoon to be published. If I made that sort of mistake more often, people would soon be reading the editorial page every day, writing us more letters, clipping out the page, arguing and laughing over cartoons and articles.

Needless to say, that would never do. I've learned from this unfortunate episode, and I trust Pett has too. Some day soon, I expect him to come into my office with a hard-hitting cartoon depicting the benefits of flossing or some similarly compelling topic.

When that happens, it will also be time for me to quit, because I won't have anything to look forward to every morning. And neither will our readers.

David Holwerk was editorial page editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader when he wrote this for the Fall 1988 issue. He is now editor of the Duluth News-Tribune.

Copyright MASTHEAD National Conference of Editorial Writers Fall 1998
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